Vying to become more of a player in local high school sports and stave off being usurped by a power league, the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League Board of Managers made several big moves last month, league commissioner Bob Kittle said Sunday.

Among them, water polo will return to the league this fall after an eight-year hiatus. All Santa Cruz County high schools with water polo programs — Soquel, Aptos, Santa Cruz, Harbor and San Lorenzo Valley — have agreed to leave the Pacific Coast Athletic League and will rejoin the SCCAL starting in the 2019-2020 season.

Kittle suggested the move. After athletic directors met with their coaches and, later, principals, for approval, the vote was unanimous.

Soquel High’s Kelsey Matthies finds the back of the net with this shot during last season’s CCS playoff game with Leland. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)

“There was some extensive travel that made for a lot of late nights for our student-athletes mid-week,” Kittle said.

The SCCAL last hosted water polo as a sport in 2010, before the teams were moved over to the Monterey Bay League. Last season the MBL and the Mission Trail Athletic League combined to create the PCAL.

Santa Cruz athletic director Erik Redding said rejoining the SCCAL isn’t only beneficial to the student, but also to fans and parents. The Cardinals’ water polo programs rely heavily on parents to get athletes to and from games.

“We don’t have the same kind of bus fleets as other districts,” Redding said of Santa Cruz City Schools, which includes Harbor, Soquel and Santa Cruz. “So this will help.”

Though the SCCAL will feature just five teams in water polo — and not much in the way of parity — Redding believes a smaller league schedule will allow teams to compete in more tournaments and in that way improve their chances of not only making the Central Coast Section playoffs, but also finding success in them.

Kittle also said the board is committed to reviewing the return of football to SCCAL in two years. It first would like to see whether playing in an equity league affects teams’ chances of reaching or their seedings within the new California Interscholastic Federation state equity playoffs.

In addition, the board approved bringing back end-of-season tournaments in all sports beginning in 2019-2020.

Venues for track (rotating sites), golf (DeLaveaga Golf Course), tennis (Seascape Sports Club), wrestling (rotating sites) and swimming (San Lorenzo Valley High) will remain the same, but tournament championships for soccer, basketball, baseball and softball will be held at Cabrillo College. This year’s basketball tournament championship game will also be held at Cabrillo.

Unlike years past, the tournament champion will not receive a share of the league title with the regular-season champion. It will, however, receive an automatic berth into the Central Coast Section playoffs, if the league receives two postseason spots in the sport from the section.

Money raised from the tournaments will help fund the SCCAL. The fundraiser aspect was not the primary goal, Kittle noted.

“The goal is to get somewhat underexposed sports some exposure,” he said. “And promote all the sports in our county. That’s the goal. I’m excited about soccer. It’s new and fresh. It’s going to be cool.”

Kittle was also looking forward to seeing the soccer teams play on Cabrillo’s new synthetic turf, which is expected to be installed in February.

“It’s going to be great,” he said.

Scotts Valley athletic director Louie Walters agreed.

“I like it,” he said. “It’s good to showcase our local community college. It should be a good neutral site like that. And having it at Cabrillo should draw more people because of the facilities.”